GUWAHATI, Dec 2 - The Anundoram Borooah Award Committee of the Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language Art and Culture (ABILAC), Assam has decided to confer the Anundoram Borooah Award for the year 2015 on noted scholar and writer Dr Nagen Saikia. Dr Saikia is a noted scholar in the field of Assamese literature, culture and Sankardeva studies, stated an ABILAC press release here today.
The decision to confer the award on Dr Saikia was adopted in a meeting of the ABILAC executive committee, which also acts as the ABILAC Award Committee. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Dr Ashok Kumar Goswami, the Vice-Chairman, Governing Council and Chairman, ABILAC executive committee here recently.
The award giving ceremony will be held on December 6 at the Machkhowa Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Performing Arts here. Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will preside over the award giving ceremony and he will also give away the award to Dr Saikia. Sarma is the Chairman of the ABILAC Governing Council.
On the occasion, a special lecture on Dr Saikia will be delivered by Dr Pradipjyoti Mahanta, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Tezpur University. The other dignitaries to be present in the meeting are Dr Ashok Kumar Goswami, Dr Jogendra Nath Phukan, Dr Nabin Chandra Sarma, Dr Satyendra Narayan Goswami and Dr Dipti Phukan Patgiri.
The award was instituted by the ABILAC, Assam in 1991 to perpetuate the hallowed memory of Anundoram Borooah, the great Sanskrit scholar and civil servant as an annual award. The award is bestowed every year on a scholar who sets high standards of excellence in the sphere of scholarship, especially in the fields of Sanskrit and allied Indological studies, literary and linguistic studies and studies in art and culture.
From the year 1991 this prestigious award has been presented to sixteen scholars. The past recipients of this award are Rajanikanta Deva Sarma (1991), Acharyya Manoranjan Shastri (1992), Dr Biswanarayan Shastri (1993), Birendra Kumar Phukan (1994), Dr Praphulladatta Goswami (1995), Jajneswar Sarma (1996), Dr Herambakanta Barpujari (1997), Dr Satyendranath Sarma (1998), Dr Jogeswar Sarma (1999), Dr Mukunda Madhava Sharma (2000), Dr Golock Chandra Goswami (2001), Dr Jogendranarayan Bhuyan (2006), Dr Pramod Chandra Bhattachajya (2007) Dr Harinath Sarmadaloi (2011), Bhadanta Sasanbansa Mahathera (2012) and Keshavananda Dev Goswami (2014).
The award comprises Rs 1 lakh in cash, a citation and a shawl.
Dr Saikia has been conferred the Mohan Chandra Sarma Award of Asam Sahitya Sabha for his book Chinta aru Charcha (1980), Sahitya Akademi Award (1997) for his short-story collection Andharat Nizar Mukh, title Vidya-Nidhi conferred by the International Buddhist Brotherhood Mission (1998), Assam Valley Literary Award (2007) for total literary contributions, Hariprasad Rai Award (2008), KK Handiqui Memorial Literary Award (2009), Jagaddhatri Haramohan Award (2010), Sabda Sahitya Award (2013), People of the Year 2015 by Limca Book of Records (2015), D.Litt. by Dibrugarh University in 2016, ERDF Excellence Award-2015 by ERD Foundation (University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya), Sri Sri Damodaradeva Award by Aauniati Sattra Majuli (2016) and some other awards till now, added the press release issued by the ABILAC Director.